OS X

There's a real call for a return to glory for the Joss Whedon* original television series Firefly, tragically cut short well before the end of its potential lifespan. Set to appear sometime inside the summer of 2014, the folks at Quantum Mechanix have taken on the task of producing Firefly as an online game, one that massive amounts of players will be able to roll with at once. Before then, they have shown off a series of preview images that'll land as a final product in the next few months.

There's an error appearing for users this afternoon for iDevices and desktop computers when they access iTunes or the App Store with the word "Fatal" in it. While we wouldn't recommend panicking quite yet, you can rest easy in knowing you're not the only one to see said error. A variety of users in forums and help arenas today are reporting the same login breakdown.

Starting well across the ocean this week the folks at Apple have begun teasing their Black Friday listings with simplicity. An Australian teaser page has appeared for what Apple calls their "one-day Apple shopping event" that just so happens to fall the day after Thanksgiving. This day is traditionally called "Black Friday" due to the massive amount of store sales across the United States - and abroad, now, as it were.

Apple is said to have already seeded OS X 10.9.1 internally and it looks like the same update has begun arriving for registered developers. This one has been sent out as build number 13B27 and as one would expect, there has yet to be any timeline given in terms of a public push for 10.9.1. For now though, Apple appears focused on Mail, Graphics and VoiceOver with this update.

In an effort to bring about a new wave of online any-machine working for those in the Apple universe, iWork for iCloud has been updated by the company with a list of new features this week. This update includes updates for the iCloud iterations of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, the whole lot of them still sitting pretty in the beta environment. While most updates work in each of the three apps, there are a few unique updates for Numbers and Keynote alone, as well.

Supposing you’re in a situation where you’d love to work with Apple’s OS X desktop operating system, but for whatever reason you’d rather not - or cannot - work with an Apple-made piece of hardware. If you’re the alternate-solutions type, there may be hope for you with the Linux Ubuntu-based system called Pear OS. The newest version of Pear OS - that’s Pear OS 8 - works with a look and feel that’s very much the most solidly cross-breed inspired iOS/OS X system out in the wild today - again, working with Unbuntu, but certainly appearing to bust out an alternate-universe Apple system by all looks and touches.

If you’ve used a previous iteration of GarageBand for OS X, the update to version 10 of the software for OS X Mavericks shouldn’t require too much convincing. It’s essentially a new iteration of the same high-powered set of features with additional features to boot. But what about those users who want to pay the cash to grab this app from the Mac App Store for the full price - those that haven’t purchased a piece of OS X hardware in the past couple of months (and from this point forward) that haven’t had the GarageBand experience? For those of you there, there’s this.

This week the folks at Apple have released information on their fourth fiscal quarter's earnings alongside comments on their future plans. This Q4 2013 has played host to comments on the biggest 4th quarter for iPhone, notes on future product categories, and word that future versions of software - including OS X - will be free as well. OS X Mavericks was introduced as a free software upgrade earlier this month, and this morning Apple's own CFO Peter Oppenheimer suggested that future versions of the operating system would be free as well.

Apple's iWork suite may now be a free download for new Mac and iOS device owners, but existing users are already complaining that some of the more useful features of iWork '09 have been buried or dropped altogether from the 2013 release. The surprise decision to make the iWork and iLife suites free was billed by Apple as a direct challenge to Microsoft and its Office/Office 365 offerings, but early feedback on the Apple Support board suggests not everybody is happy with the new apps.

Don't purchase a MacBook Pro this late 2013 season expecting to be able to repait it on your own any time in the near future - at least not by the judgement of the team at iFixit. They've made with the teardown of both the MacBook Pro 13-inch and 15-inch units from this most recent season, and the results point toward some of the least user-friendly innards on the market. If you're not about repairing the hardware later on in the life of the machine's wear-and-tear yourself, you'll need no worries at all.